Category: Trend

Fizz, fruit and veg

If you want to lose weight and follow any kind of fitness accounts chances are at some point you will have come across one of the many supplement companies out there. Herbal life, Juice Plus, Arbonne, these companies differ from slimming clubs in that they are sold more as a healthy lifestyle aid than a weight loss product (although they can also be targeted at weight loss). What they hope to persuade people is that by buying their products you will be healthier and fitter than if you used other products or none at all. When you’re feeling out of shape or overweight this marketing can be very persuasive.

Often they sell protein powders, vitamin type supplements and energy drinks (fizz seems to be a popular term) to be used as a coffee alternative. They look desirable to customers because the idea of a brand offering everything you need to fuel your fitness journey is let’s face it, alluring.

And there’s nothing wrong with any of these products. They’re the same kind of supplements PTs will recommend but branded and expensive.

Protein powder for instance, you’re generic brand will set you back around £20-£25 for a KG bag. These companies will often sell essentially protein shakes (marked up as other things perhaps) for double that. Vitamins, depending on where you get them can cost a few quid, except when you get them from a company such as this. Energy sticks? £20 or more a month for one drink a day, well it might seem less holistic but a coffee costs a fair bit less than that.

The fact of the matter is, having tried at least a couple of these companies products, some of them do taste good. For me Herbal Life vanilla protein is still the nicest one I’ve ever tasted. Does it do anything more than that to deserve the price tag? No. You’re getting nothing extra from buying these products instead of ones from places like My Protein.

Then there’s the claims the products can ‘make’ a healthy lifestyle. Juice Plus supplements with a range of fruit and veg (6 tablets a day) will set you back £69 a month. On top of food and any other supplements. Why not buy £18 of extra fruit and veg a week and bulk out your meals? Or put the £69 towards your shopping.

It might be you use these products and love them, and there’s nothing wrong with that. If you like the taste and can afford it then why not. If you’re on a budget and just want to feel better about yourself though, you don’t need to spend huge amounts on supplements or vitamins to start making progress.

Hybrid AF

Are you Hybrid athlete?

Recently this phrase has become a full on trend on social media. So what is a Hybrid Athlete? Well officially someone who excels simultaneously in both strength and endurance activities, but essentially someone who trains for multiple disciplines or in multiple ways.

Is it really a new thing? Honestly, no. Lots of people have always done a mixture of heavy lifting and cardio, things like Crossfit where multi functional fitness is the aim, lifted and ran. It is however getting more attention now and with this new (not new but trending i guess) name gaining more recognition.

People who maybe once almost exclusively lifted might now consider running as a bigger part of their training or add in other types of exercise rather than being of the mindset ‘I do this and this is the best form of training and all other types of training are inferior’ mindset.

In this sense the growth of the Hybrid Athlete is a good thing. Multi functional programmes with variety and a mixture of cardio and resistance fitness can help people become more robust overall, not just leaner or stronger, but generally better equiped to live a healthy every day lfe.

When we talk about functional fitness or say a workout contains functional moves, we are essentially saying it will help up in every day life (carrying things, picking up kids and so on). Not focusing on one form of movement can help benefit you in the same sort of functional way as you are working on being more robust and fit overall rather than excelling in one particular way.

The other benefit i see from this type of training is the mindset benefits, in terms of confidence as you try new things, get used to stepping out of your comfort zone and expand you skill set. It also takes the idea of training away from being a means to an end to lose weight or achieve a certain physique and makes it a more feel good about yourself thing

The chances are you do already train Hybrid without really thinking about it, but you can use the new buzz word as a reminder to try new exercise trends, train outside the box, give new things a go and see where they take you.